Alphaville Special Issue – Moving Beyond the (De)Colonial Container: The Work of Film Festivals

Estrella Sendra and Sheila Petty (editors)

This Alphaville issue, co-edited by Estrella Sendra and Sheila Petty, brings together contributions that probe innovative approaches and methods of decolonising knowledge in screen cultures. Beginning with the question of what and whose knowledge is privileged, the editors and contributors seek to understand how film festivals, from inception to production, engage with knowledge paradigms to dismantle matrices of power and perform and promote artistic representations of sovereignty. The writers are particularly interested in work on film festivals that theorises and historicises (de)colonial frameworks for engaging with all aspects of film festivalisation.

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(De)colonising knowledge is not a new concern, born exclusively of activities resulting from Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. In fact, as several scholars point out, some relatively little-known events have contributed to and/or “provoke debates around the world concerning decolonization”. The Algerian War of Independence, for example, “known in Algeria most commonly as the thwara (Arabic for ‘revolution’), came to emblemize the struggles of millions across the world against colonial rule and for greater dignity”. Various groups around the globe retain different perceptions of the term—applied locally— which we attempt to unpack in this special issue.